Ironwood Communications

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Lack of Service - Lack of Gray Matter

By muskie - 11/30/2006

PENNSYLVANIA -- In posting this review I hope to be of help to others who are likely to suffer similar problems regarding Ironwood Communications and DirecTV. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM! THEY ARE INCOMPETENT! THEY HAVE NO REGARD FOR YOUR TIME! BRAZEN LIES! EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES!

First appointment: November 16th 2006. Ironwood's installer arrives at around 3:00pm There is slight rainfall and since the installation involves high work) use of a ladder, the installer says that he is not comfortable working on a ladder while it is raining. I understand his reasoning as the satellite dish is just below the peak of our roof, two stories high. He said that my wife and I should call to reschedule the appointment which we did.

Second appointment: November 21st 2006. As always is the case with this type of business you are given a window of time as to when you might expect the installer. This appointment was 8:00am-12:00pm and Ironwood's installer arrived around 10:30am. The installer informed us that he did not have the correct cable box with him so my wife and I should call his office to set yet another appointment with IRON-HEAD, I mean Ironwood.

By the way my wife had phoned the Ironwood office in Pittsburgh Pa. the day before to verify two things. First was the type of receiver that was to be installed and second was that a tall ladder was needed to complete the installation due to the height of the roof.

Third attempt, today… we had an appt scheduled between 8:00am-noon. The installer showed up around 9:30 and started to assess the situation. He looked around and then made a phone call back to his office. He told us, he would need a 40 ft ladder and that he did not have one. He also had the wrong information on the work order - again! He said we would have to reschedule.

By this point we had had enough. We called DirecTV and told them what had happened. They tried to help and said they would work to get an Ironwood installer back out there today. At the same time Ironwood called directly and told us the first appt they had available was on Dec 8th. We explained that we waited long enough and that we preferred an appt later today or tomorrow at the latest. We went back and forth numerous times. We asked to speak to a supervisor but were told she was not available.

DirecTV attempted to help resolve the problem but in the end all they really did was continue to put us in touch with the Ironwood call center to resolve the problem. Round and round we went with dates all of which required us waiting days. We were told people would get back to us, but we waited and waited , in the end we had to call them.

We have spent over 14 hours trying to get DirecTV installed and all for nothing. DirecTV and Ironwood both have failed us and as consumers we will do all we can to discourage others from buying their services. Missing work, spending our time needlessly chasing customer DIS-SERVICE people to try to rectify this mess. AND WE ARE HELD HOSTAGE BECAUSE OUR CHOICES ARE SO FEW. When will companies realize that WE ARE THE CUSTOMERS.

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Stole $50 From Me; Shoddy Installation.

By Jayne - 06/20/2009

TULSA, OKLAHOMA -- I am in shock as to how many bad reviews are on here about this company. It makes me feel all the more angry, used, and cheated. For one, when my DirecTV was set up a year ago by someone from Ironwood it was the crappiest job I had ever seen. Cable wire came out of the ceiling from my son's closet. 20-30 ft of cable wire just dangling from the ceiling and lying on his closet floor. 2nd, they used a splitter to connect that cable wire from his room to the main receiver in our living room. (My son's closet is actually directly behind the wall that our main receiver was on). So, if my son goes into his closet at any time and touches that wire we lose signal.

So, I called DirecTV for another technician to come out. I simply wanted another wire ran into my son's room so the 2 receivers were not connected together via a splitter. I also wanted the living room wire to be fixed so it did not come through my son's closet ceiling.

This tech drilled a hole from the outside of my house, through the BRICK WALL and into my son's room. The cable wire comes into my son's wall about 3 ft up from the ground -- 2 black wires and a hole in the middle of his wall. No outlet protector, no protection from bugs or rain or anything from outside. Plus now we have property damage to the outside of our home because the idiot drilled through BRICK.

So, I called DirecTV again and complained of the job. Again, for the third time, a technician from Ironwood comes out. We wanted the living room receiver moved to a different wall (about 5 ft away from where it was.) We wanted the 20-30 ft of wire out of my son's closet. We wanted something else to be done about the wire coming through our brick wall and the holes around that wire.

The technician showed up on time. He came in our home talking on his cell phone. He had no work order with him. He didn't even know what he was there to do. When we told him we wanted the receiver in the living room moved to a different wall, he said it would cost $65. I told him that when I called DirecTV to set this up they told me it would cost $49. He said, "Well, let me check. They have had some price changes lately. Oh yes, it is $49." I thought, "hmmmm."

So then I asked if it would be billed to my DirecTV account. He told me "no, it's never just billed to your account. It has to be cash or a check and paid the day of service." Again, I thought, "hmmm." He proceeded to go outside and talk on his cell phone for about 15 min before he got started. However, this guy actually did a good job installing the receiver on the new wall. He did not fix the wire coming from my son's closet ceiling, nor did he touch the wire coming into my son's room from the outside brick. He hooked up the TV to our receiver and reset it. He waited for the satellite to load. He was finished. Less than 30 min of work.

My husband paid him $50. (He did not have the $1 change). He asked my husband to borrow a pen to fill out his paperwork. My husband signed it. He told my husband he would go get his copy. He then went out to his truck... and left. We had no receipt. No copy of the work order. Nothing. Funny thing is, today I looked at my statement online from DirecTV and guess what? I had been billed $49. I called them at 5 pm when I got home from work. I was transferred to 4 different people and on the phone 2 hrs.

Finally, someone told me they contract installation/repairs to Ironwood Communications, but they do not have a phone number or address to this company. And since we had no receipt showing we paid the tech IN CASH, we would more than likely be responsible to pay the $49 to DirecTV as billed. WHAT?? You mean to tell me that a billion dollar corporation, such as DirecTV, contracts work out to someone who represents them, yet they don't even have a phone number for them. (They said all work orders are submitted via a form on the computer).

After 2 hours of getting nowhere, I looked up Ironwood online. All I was hoping to find was a phone number so I could find out what was going on. Instead, I found hundreds of reviews from I don't know how many different websites. People that have been screwed royally by this company. I was in shock. How can this company get away with what they do?

I called DirecTV back. I ended up spending 2 more hours on the phone talking to 2 different people this time. Finally, a man from tech support (I am sorry, in all the people I talked to today I did not get his name), he got the $49 fee taken off my account. At that point, I told him $50 bucks is JUST $50 BUCKS! At this point, someone came into my home and stole $50 from me. They get paid by the job. So, he got paid by his employer to come out, plus he got a nice little $50 bonus. And DirecTV lost $50 because the people they contract out are dishonest. Not only that, we only switched from Dish Network to DirecTV a year ago so we could get the MLB package.

I told the guy from DirecTV that watching baseball is not worth what we have been through in a year. Even my husband said "screw it, we'll switch back." How many customers is DirecTV willing to lose? Why hasn't someone called an investigative reporter from 20/20 or dateline or something. Because according to the websites this happens all over America. If someone knows a way to contact someone to investigate, let me know. I will gladly do anything I can.

One more thing… after the guy from DirecTV refunded the charge tonight, he offered to set up someone to come out at NO COST and fix the things that were not fixed. Guess what??? It would have been someone from Ironwood!!! My husband said no thanks, he'll get a wire cutter to cut down all that wire from my son's closet and patch the holes himself.

At this point it isn't about the $50. It is about a company that gets paid money to do crappy work. It's employees can come into your home and destruct it, and all the while steal money from you as well. And they can get away with it because they have a "CONTRACT" and DirecTV claims to have no information regarding the company. One more thing... Ironwood is changing it's name to "DirecTV Home Services" nationwide. All phone numbers I found online are no longer working numbers. I found no website for this company. How can we stop them??

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Ironwood Communcations / DirecTV Sucks

By Cuty - 10/14/2007

CHANDLER, ARIZONA -- I am a return customer to DirecTV. My husband and I were so happy to see all the wonderful programs and packages that were offered by DirecTV via mail. We went ahead and cancelled our local cable service, and were looking forward to all this new programs that will come on.

Appointment #1 10/2/07: A technician was scheduled to come out and complete the "easy installation process" on 10/2/2007 between 12-4p.m. I was more than happy to take half day off from work waiting for the technician. The technician ended up showing up at 5:30p.m. I was a bit unhappy thinking that I could have been working all day. But since this was supposed to be a 1-time thing. No biggie.

The tech guy told me that there were several issues and he wouldn't be able to install it. He said that since my Internet line has not been switched to a standalone, my Internet service would not work if he installed the DirecTV Service. I explained to him that the Internet guy would come out and fix it 2 days later, and I could live without the Internet service for a few days. Then, he found another excuse not to do it. He told us that they need two plugs on the back of our TV in order to install the DVR, and the only way that can be done is if we are willing to pay $85 and he would run a line through the attic.

My husband and I talked about it over the phone and we agreed to pay and got the whole thing over with. Then, he spent about 2 minutes in the attic and he decided that it was more worked that needed to be done than he expected, he would need to reschedule and come out on Saturday again. This guy is from "Ironwood Communications" located in Chandler, Arizona.

Appointment #2 10/6: After several days of not having our TV service, we were still happy that the same installer would be coming out and installed the dish for us. It turned out that Ironwood contracted some other company to complete the installation for us. Not the same guy who promised me that could come back out. These crews explained to us that they could run a line through one of our bedrooms and still gave us a free installation.

While all 3 of them began the installation process, I wanted to confirm that they were aware of the special program I ordered called "the Jadeworld". They immediately stop the installation process and told me that they were not being told, and they did not have the "International dish" for programs to come on. They told me they would come out the same night with the correct dish, which turned out to be the next day, and reschedule again to the following Monday.

Appointment #3 10/8 and 10/9: A guy showed up on time. This is a different tech guy again. Prior to the installation, we explained to him that we need a 3LNB dish for Jadeworld channels to come on. He did not bother looking into it and started installing the international dish. We figured he is the expert, not us, and he insisted that he knew what he was doing.

After 4 hours of installation, he could not activate the Jadeworld channels. Then he realized that we were right all along. What we need was the 3LNB, not the international dish. Since it was getting really late at night and he could not finished wiring all the rooms, we allowed him to complete the rest the next day.

Appointment #4 10/13: We were on the phone with DirecTV for an hour and a half trying to get this rescheduled. We told them that all we needed is the correct dish for the Jadeworld channels to kick in. Nothing more. DirecTV scheduled with "Ironwood Communications" again for the installation, supposedly between 4-8p.m. My husband called the local office on Wednesday and checked if they could come out earlier. Unfortunately, they were all booked up.

My husband and I waited patiently until Saturday, and a guy from Ironwood Communications by the name of ** called us and cancelled our appointment. He forced us to reschedule the appointment because "there was miscommunication between Ironwood and sub-contractors", and "he was not aware our appointment". He told us that he was just a tech and he had no control over this.

Finally, we had to call DirecTV again and on hold for an hour, did a 3 way phone call with Ironwood Communications. We were on hold for 30 minutes before someone finally picked up the phone. Not only she was not being understanding in regards to our frustration towards the situation, she was extremely rude to us (and DirecTV Staff) over the phone. DirecTV customer service rep explained to them that if they didn't correct their mistake and came out the same night, the customer was going to cancel. Their response was "that's not our problem, go ahead and cancel then".

Appointment #5 10/15: Ironwood tried to correct his or her mistake by sending someone out to us between 4-8p.m. When the tech called us, I asked him if he was aware of what happened and what needs to be done. Not only he did not know anything besides "this is a regular installation, right?" without knowing what 3LNB is or why we needed it, I could not even understand the guy. His English was so poor that I could not even understand him at all.

I then called DirecTV and found out why they are sending out "Ironwood" to us again. I explained to DirecTV customer service rep what the situation was and specifically requested another tech company to do it correctly once and for all. I was told by the customer service that they would request for the approval from the management to allow another company fixing all the mistakes. Managers would call me back within 24-48 hours to grant me the approval on this.

I called back 30 minutes later to confirm that this is a correction on the mistake that they've all made since the beginning, and this is not a "upgrade" service. The customer service rep told me that both orders dated on 10/13 and 10/15 were for an "upgrade" on the dish, and they were going to charge us on it. She kindly cancelled those two activities and re-opened another one for us. I asked the customer service rep if she could re-escalate this activity to her supervisor and request for another tech company, since she cancelled the one that was supposed to be escalated.

She told me that it was impossible to get done that way, and she did not see any note from the previous rep that it would be done. We were on the phone for quite some time and she finally realized that we were now able to pick a different tech company for the installation process. Not to mention that she argued with me for 15 minutes and insisted that we needed an international dish when it was not right. I had to educate her what has changed and that Jadeworld was no longer with the international dish. It is the 3LNB (from I have been told by other reps). The whole thing wasted 2 hours of my working time.

Throughout the whole process, my husband and I were on the phone with DirecTV at least 10 times, with an hour each minimal, and constantly got transferred from one department to another. Do not order DirecTV. And if you do, please tell them do not use "Ironwood Communications" for installations. THEY SUCK!!!

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DirecTV Installation by Ironwood Communications

By SwitchingToComcast - 01/11/2008

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- You only have to Google "Ironwood Communications" to find a plethora of complaints about the company, it's customer service and it's employees. There is a reason for that. Ironwood's customer service is among the worst I have ever experienced. If I treated my customers the way I have been treated by Ironwood, I would have been out of business a very long time ago. It's unfortunate for me that I am limited in my cable choices and apparently DirecTV is limited in its choice of contractors. I'd be shocked to find out that DirecTV isn't losing customers on a daily basis because of Ironwood's lack of professionalism.

A couple of months ago my husband received a phone solicitation and through that ordered a package of high definition channels. When we realized that the billing for those channels started, but that we were not receiving them, we made a phone call. DirecTV sent us a part that we needed to install ourselves, but it didn't work.

Another month of phone calls to DirecTV went by before Ironwood was sent to the house to do the "upgrade". The appointment was set for 01/07/08. Not only was the contractor uninformed about the work that was needed, he was also clearly inexperienced. Six hours later, he and his partner that he called in to help, completed the "simple upgrade" and left. Shortly after, not only were we not receiving the HD channels, but we were not receiving ANY channels! Even our local stations were "unavailable."

I called DirecTV immediately and was told I'd need to call back at 7:00 the next morning. On 01/08/08, I called DirecTV, per their instructions and was placed on hold for 23 minutes. I was then walked through a "troubleshooting" exercise by an agent that clearly thought I was dumber than a bag of nails. These exercises didn't work (since the problem isn't with my remote control), she places me on hold for another 11 minutes.

She came back on the line to tell me that the next available appointment would be January 24 - two entire weeks away! I explained that this was unacceptable for a variety of reasons. First off, our satellite was working just fine, all we wanted was a simple upgrade, but because of errors made by an installer - we no longer have ANY TV channels. I am not looking for an appointment for service, I simply want Ironwood to correct what they did. This ought to put me at the top of the list - even if it means bumping another customer to a later time.

Furthermore, I work as a political consultant, and use a home office. I need to be able to access the Capitol channels, C-Span and at a minimum, my local news. I bill my clients by the hour, and so each hour that I am without access to these channels, I am losing money. Not to mention the embarrassment of having to explain to a client why I missed something that he/she may have already picked up.

I was then told that the next available appointment would still be January 24, but that I could be put on a wait list. However, if I choose the wait list option I have to forgo my Jan 24 appointment, so if the wait list doesn't pan out, then I'll have to call to schedule something for February. I asked for a supervisor, and was promptly "disconnected." I called back, was put on hold again, had to tell my story all over, and then had to hold one more time while a supervisor was tracked down.

Once I reached ** (a DirecTV supervisor) she was very helpful and put me in touch with a customer service rep at Ironwood Communications. Again, I explained my situation and asked that it be escalated to a supervisor that could bypass the dispatch system in order to received immediate service. I was placed on hold for 14 minutes while the rep searched for a supervisor that was willing to help me. She never found anyone, but left a message to have someone call me back. If I hadn't heard from ** the supervisor by 10:00am, I was instructed to call him.

Having never heard from **, I called and was told that he hadn't come in yet, and that no other supervisors were in the building. Having worked in call centers before, I feel fairly certain that Ironwood does not have an entire staff of customer service reps working unsupervised for any length of time.

Frustrated and feeling lied to, I agreed to leave another message and wait another 2 hours for a supervisor to call me back. No one called. At noon, I called again, and was told that this time they would send an e-mail explaining the situation to a supervisor and that I should expect to hear from someone "soon". This time I waited until 4:30 pm and having not received a phone call, I called back again. This time I'm told that another e-mail will be sent, but that I will have to allow 24 hours for a response. Now I have lost an entire day of work sitting on hold and waiting for return calls that never come.

Not having a spare 24 hours to wait for a phone call, on the morning of 01/09/08 I called Ironwood again. After having to explain my situation to 4 different people, and sit on hold for a total of more than 60 minutes, I was told that someone would have to call me back.

Thankfully this time, I did receive a prompt return call from **, a supervisor who was genuine and helpful. He dispatched a technician, also named ** who was able to be on site later that day. ** called me as he was leaving another job, to let me know his ETA. I felt like I had finally found a professional at Ironwood! ** was there when he said he'd be there, and when he left, our satellite was back on line. Unfortunately, within half an hour, our service was out again.

I called Ironwood, and again had to go through the same frustrating process of explaining my story to several people and spending excessive amounts of time on hold. The phone rep I spoke with explained that one of the problems was that there was no record of us having a service call. The technician had been asked to respond "off the books."

While I appreciate that this meant he was able to respond before the 24th of the month, I was horrified to learn that because Ironwood has no record of a service call to my house that as a homeowner I am liable if the technician had been injured on my property! Why would Ironwood be willing to put me at such great risk? The phone rep responded by saying, "Ma'am, we were trying to do you a favor." I wish you could have heard her tone!

The fourth day of this fiasco was spent calling, holding and waiting for a call back. A call that never came. Needless to say, it is 01/11/08 and I still have no service. I am sitting at home on what is now my 5th day away from work, waiting for that elusive phone call from a supervisor who will try to find an available tech to come out. Again, I have been asked to wait another 24 hours. I have calculated my losses at well over $1,000. A high price to pay for a couple of HD channels.

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Terrible Customer Service a Complete Disregard for Customer Satisfaction

By Wyoming Consumer - 12/17/2007

BUFFALO, WYOMING -- A few weeks ago, I had an appointment for Thursday between 12:00 and 5:00 p.m., regularly scheduled workday for most people. It had been scheduled much in advance through DirecTV. We placed a work order to have a technician move a DirecTV receiver box from one room to another. The new location was new construction. However, all inside wiring was accurately completed before the Ironwood technician was scheduled to complete the work order.

The technician arrived early in the a.m., several hours early, minor inconvenience, I just happened to still be home. He connected the outside cable to the dish. However, the technician left without moving the box and/or testing the outlet in the new location to assure that the dish, box, and/or outlet worked as it was intended. If the Ironwood technician had attempted to test the box or outlet, he would have realized that a coaxial cable was needed for connectivity to the wall outlet from the receiver.

After speaking with one of DirecTV's technicians and being told that I would need to talk to someone at Ironwood, I called Ironwood. An Installation Supervisor named ** helps with programming the box and TV after I moved both the TV and receiver to the new location. Thank you so very much **. We did, however, encounter a few problems. Of course, the first problem or issue that we encountered was that the cable in the original location was connected directly from the dish through the outside wall directly into the DirecTV box (there was no way to move the cable without tearing out the wall).

Therefore, the original cable would not be moved to the new location. I borrowed the coaxial cable from the DirecTV receiver box located in the bedroom. This allowed us to set up the receiver box in the new location and get it programmed for viewing DirecTV's channel services according to our purchased programming. Upon completion of the setup for DirecTV's programming, ** told me that a 6ft coaxial cable would be delivered within a few days to replace the cable in the bedroom. It has now been close to two weeks since we spoke. I would like to know when or if this cable will be delivered as promised.

I called DirecTV this a.m. and was told that I would need to set up a work order and pay to have a cable brought out to me. When I explained the situation again, I was told to call Ironwood. I called Ironwood's Customer Support Services 5 times before I was able to speak with an individual that could begin to understand what I was saying. Not to mention her inability to communicate that which she was trying to say. I have worked with people from all over the world in the capacity of a Network Support Specialist/Technician.

In addition, yes, I am English speaking but I figured out ways to make sure that communications between customers, my fellow technicians, and me were clear and concise. I never once attempted to intimidate or disrespect people. I know that I could have eliminated this stressor if I had driven 35 miles and purchased a coaxial cable but that is not the point.

I made at least 7 calls to Ironwood Communications and DirecTV today. I am convinced that “Customer Service” is a thing of the past. I have included some of the detail pertaining to my ordeal with Ironwood and DirecTV. The proposed path to resolution is as follows: according to the fifth representative that I spoke with, she would leave a message for another supervisor to call me within the hour. ** was not in the office today.

I am very disappointed with the quality or the lack thereof "customer support" services that I received from both DirecTV and Ironwood. When I called Ironwood, the first "customer support" representative, ** or ** (check spelling), was very annoying and rude. She obviously felt the need to try to intimidate me by attempting to loudly talk over me in a very condescending tone. She did not allow me to complete a sentence, much less give her the information that would help to convey our current problem/issue.

I then called Ironwood a second time to speak with or leave a message for **, the Installation Supervisor for our area (Buffalo, WY). This conversation consisted of a "customer service" representative that tells me that she "...can't help me and that I need to go to Best Buy and buy a cable or they could place a work order and charge me for the call and cable." I called back a third time and attempted again to explain, that ** told me that I should have received the cable during the work order/service call, But since I didn't, he would have the tech drop a 6ft coaxial cable off to me.

Again, I was told that she, the “customer service” representative, could not help me. I should hang up, call DirecTV, and place another work order. As you can well imagine, I am frustrated at this point. All that I want to do is to find out if and when a coaxial cable will be delivered as promised. I called Ironwood Communications again and was told to hang up and dial back and select option 3. This took me right back to the “customer service” representatives.

I called back, for the 5th and last time, I hope. After being placed on hold for 30 minutes, I was told that a supervisor would call me within the hour. Well, we are well past the promised hour now and I have not received the call from an Ironwood supervisor, as promised. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. ;)

What ever happened to "customer service"? Has it gone for good or will companies here in the U.S and abroad realize that their customers, the same ones that pay the bills and put money in the pockets of many undeserving, deserve better than the quality of service or lack thereof that I have received today and in the past? Please forward this to any appropriate office for their record of complaints and hopefully, consideration for a resolution. I am sending this on to Ironwood Communications, DirecTV, the Better Business Bureau, and any other entity that I think will be interested. **, disgruntled consumer.

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Worst Company Ever

By JERPIT - 09/14/2006

SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA -- This company is the worst ever. I had a appointment for yesterday between 1-5. Nobody showed. At 5:pm I called them and they said the installer would be here at 6:30 pm. He never showed. I called them back at 7:30 pm, they could not contact the installer, I called until 9:00 pm, and was told that the installer still had the equipment in his truck, so I would be first in the morning. I have taken off another day of work to make this appointment, and it's another no show. The company now says that they can squeeze me in next week. DirecTV is doing nothing about this mess.

This morning I spoke to a manager named **. He said it would be unfair for a installer to come out to my house today, just because his installer hung me up all day yesterday. I have to wait for another appointment on another day. I have posted the above comments on Yahoo reviews for Ironwood Communications, and while checking the internet I have found that there are many posts complaining about poor service.

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Poor Service in Every Way!!

By frustrated by stupidity - 05/19/2009

BELLEVILLE, ARKANSAS -- After reading all of the complains about Ironwood Communications, I only wish I'd investigated a bit further before signing up with them. Let me tell you my story… The installer was to show up at 4:30 pm. I took off work and my husband took off work to be there when they showed up. We waited around until 5 pm when we got a phone call saying the guy would show up at between 5:30 and 6:00. We told them to call us so we could give directions because our house is hard to find.

At about 6:30 we get a call and the man is lost. My husband tried to give him directions but it was like talking to a wall, so we told him to stay put and we'd meet him at a specific location and he could follow us to our house. We arrive at that location and he isn't there. He has continued to drive and is lost yet again. So we tell him to meet us at a second location. He does and we lead him to our house. By this time it's after 7:00. He gets out of the van and says "it looks like I'm working for free tonight". He walks around my yard for about ten minutes and says that he can't do it. He can get either locals or the regular satellite but not both.

I say I don't care about locals but he refused to do it without both parts. He says he needs us to cut down a tree before he comes back. Now, "this tree" is over 100 feet tall and about 6 feet wide. I wonder where he wants me to put this tree. On my house? Or maybe my electric wires? So, long story short, he leaves. My husband calls DirecTV and they say that he could have done it and he was just lazy. They set up a new installation date for 10 days later. Meanwhile I've already paid for the service. Why should I be penalized due to their incompetence?

The next day I call DirecTV back myself and tell them my story. They tell me to call Ironwood or that Ironwood would call me within 24 hours. I still have not received that call and my satellite is still not installed. I would highly advise anyone not to go through this company. They are liars and incompetent and refuse to make their promises or contracts good.

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Ironwood Communications - Incompetent Everything!

By ccsf - 12/17/2007

MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA -- I WAS a happy DirecTV customer for many years until this last weekend. We wasted 3 days (Fri, Sat & Sun) fighting to get a simple installation. Last week I called DirecTV when our 4 year old receiver started to fail. DirecTV was very helpful and I negotiated replacing the receiver with an upgraded HDTV receiver. We made the installation appointment for Friday morning. The installation company never showed up or called.

DirecTV referred us to Ironwood Communications - the company DirecTV contracts with for installation service. They promised they would arrive Friday afternoon between 1 & 5 PM. The installer called at 5 PM and said he wouldn't be there until 6:30 PM. We asked if he had our new equipment and he said he had the receiver. Well, HDTV uses a different satellite dish! He apparently didn't know this.

Hours later he finally showed up. He did a VERY rushed installation and left, without checking to see if the service worked properly. You guessed it - it didn't work properly. He also didn't cancel the card in the old receiver (the one he took with him) so DirecTV thought we had one more receiver than we actually had, and charged us for it. We called DirecTV and they scheduled another installation/repair appointment for Saturday 1-5 PM. By 3 PM no one had arrived so we called. We were assured that the technician was on his way and received a service confirmation number. We waited until 6PM, no one ever came.

We called back DirecTV and they said, "You don't have an appointment." Wow! After speaking with three customer service persons we finally reached a supervisor who made a conference call to the Ironwood Communications dispatcher. That person said, "Oh, there it is (appointment)... We're sorry. We'll send someone Sunday morning. You will be the first appointment and the technician will call you at 8AM to confirm." You can guess what happened, NO SHOW. Again!

Well, we spent the entire day Sunday trying to get a service technician to respond. We spoke with the Ironwood Santa Rosa office - WOW what a bunch of rude, argumentative, rednecks!! In fact they were so uncooperative that we called both the DirecTV and Ironwood customer service centers and asked that they send a technician from another area.

Santa Rosa is in the San Francisco Metropolitan Area. This area has a population of over 3 million!!! I'm sure that Ironwood has more regional offices and other technicians other than the individuals in the Santa Rosa Office. NO, apparently only Santa Rosa could respond. I called DirecTV and spoke with the VP of Installation Services. He apologized, agreed with my assessment and promised an immediate VIP installation. A manager from Ironwood called and promised me that another technician would arrive by 3PM. Of course no was here by 3PM.

The manager called back just after 3 PM and couldn't understand why the technician wasn't here. EVEN HE COULDN'T CONTROL THE SANTA ROSA OFFICE EMPLOYEES. Guess what my VIP installation was - the same incompetent technician who came on Friday arrived back on Sunday at 4PM and immediately began arguing with my wife. WAIT, it gets better! The same Ironwood supervisor at the Santa Rosa office who was uncooperative, rude, demeaning, sarcastic, yelled at my wife and hung up on us arrived at our home right as the technician. WOW!!!

We called DirecTV and Ironwood and reported the misconduct and pleaded with them to send a competent technician from another office. Oh well! What if the technician had arrived drunk and we complained. Would it make sense to send the same guy back?

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Ironwood Communications Caused the Death of My Dog

By octobert - 05/07/2007

BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA -- In early April, DirecTV sent an individual from Ironwood Communications to upgrade our system and this is what happened. First of all, the technicians showed up at my house and did not knock on my front door. They proceeded through a closed gate in my backyard and started inspecting the dish there. It wasn't until I came out to the backyard that contact was initiated with them. It should be noted that my wife was breastfeeding my six-day old son in direct line of the window on the back door. They proceeded to do what they needed to do with the dish.

When they came inside, I let Edgar, my pure-breed, champion pedigree, English bulldog out the back door so that he would not be in there way. I did not know at that time that they had left the back gate open. About an hour later, we realized Edgar was missing. I went searching for him and then called the police. They told me he had been hit by a car and brought to the vet. I called the vet and they informed me that Edgar had died on the x-ray table from internal bleeding.

Ironwood has now sent me a letter denying my property damage claim. First of all, I never filed a property damage claim… I do not view my dog as property and I am insulted by it. Secondly, they state it is not their job to "watch and maintain control" of the dog. I never said it was, but it is their responsibility to not carelessly leave my gate open… a gate that was closed before they opened it. Another issue I have is the mysterious second technician that was at my house.

When I spoke with an individual at the local Ironwood office and another in their national office, they both seemed surprised by the fact that two technicians were here. Despite repeated attempts, they would not tell me who the second individual was. Also, despite the fact that I was holding the dog around the chest while they were in my house and I was talking to them, the technician claimed he didn't see the dog. To top it all off, they left here with only one TV of the three working. Someone else had to come out two days later to fix it and they were in disbelief at the sloppy job done.

In regards to the individual at Ironwood's national office, he first gave me a wrong phone number over the phone and then the number he gave me in his letter to contact him wasn't correct, either. I had to jump through hoops to finally get in touch with him.

Initially, individual's I have spoken to at DirecTV were sincere and kind. They seemed to appreciate the pain that has been brought to my family. However, after they escalated my complaint over a month ago, I still have not heard anything back from them. They have also ignored a follow-up email I sent them three weeks ago. Now I am unsure of what to think of DirecTV.

I haven't asked for anything from anyone at this point… I just wanted an apology from the responsible persons and to maybe keep this from happening again. Now, Ironwood has turned our sadness into anger. I considered small claims against Ironwood and their technicians, as well as trespassing charges for initially entering my property without permission. However, I have a newborn child at home and do not have the energy to pursue this issue any further because of the emotional toll.

So, the purpose of this letter to you is in hopes that other people will keep any eye on their pets when service people are at their houses. I also wanted to express my concern over how the law perceives pets as property. Even if I wanted to pursue some sort of lawsuit, I wouldn't want to stand their as they refer to Edgar as property.

This was a family member. One that we went through surgeries and health problems with. One that my 20-month old son played with. One that we relied on for personal safety. Nothing can bring him back, but I am going to do all I can to make sure it doesn't happen to someone else.

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Ironwood Runaround...

By Dorv - 02/09/2007

OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS -- I will be leaving DirecTV because of the poor performance of Ironwood Communications: So, I was fed up with a variety of technical issues with DirecTV, and tried to cancel service. I let myself get talked into upgrading my box, which required an upgraded satellite dish. They scheduled an 8-12 appointment for like three weeks later.

The day in question arrives, and I take it off. I call around 11:30 (directly to Ironwood Communications 800 number, not DirecTV). They tell me at 11:30 that the guy was running late (obviously), and could arrive at 1:30p. This is later than my time off allowed, but I agreed anyway. 2:00 rolls around, and I call back. The dispatcher can't get a hold of the installer, but promised to have him call me. 2:45 rolls around and he finally calls back. He explains that he's still on his first install of the day, but that his supervisor was 'already' working on a solution for me.

I really wasn't REALLY pissed until he said the word already, like he was doing me a favor. 'Already' working on a solution would have happened around 11:00 that morning or so when he realized that he was still on his first install, and wouldn't make any of his morning (or afternoon, the way things went for him) appointments. So, I continue to wait. 3:15 when the supervisor calls, telling me that he his on his way, and would be there at 4:00. 4:30, I HAVE to leave for work, so I do.

I call Ironwood again, and tell the dispatcher to have the guy come back to base, as I was finally giving up and leaving for work. This was the only mistake I made of the day (other than, you know, staying with DirecTV), as apparently, they took that has a cancellation. I immediately had called DirecTV, and they said that they couldn't reschedule until two months later. They couldn't get me in with a supervisor, so I call back later that night.

That begins a three day process of DirecTV "escalating" the issue, and promising me that someone from Ironwood would call me the next day. Three nights I make the call to DirecTV, three days that they make that promise, and three days I'm disappointed. The notes in my account kept telling the CSR that I was a No-Show at the appointment, so I had to explain the situation 7,000 times. After a couple more days of waiting, I finally get a hold of a supervisor at my local Ironwood shop, and he tells me that while he doesn't have any HR20's in stock, the new shipment comes in on Thursday, and he could install it on Saturday.

I agreed, but couldn't get Saturday off. After not being able to get a hold of anyone at Ironwood who knew what they were talking about again, and going through all of the menus and CSRs trying explain thing, I quite literally gave up. Sunday Ticket is the only thing holding me to DirecTV, and I hope that I'll be making a move back east and alleviating that need by Football season, and I'll cancel, and get something local at the time.

DirecTV is not without its own problems, but its use of Ironwood is a real problem, as at the very least, my branch provides service that is well below acceptable standards. I understand that Ironwood specifically will peak at this board, and I am willing to speak to anyone at Ironwood about these issues.